Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T09:58:29.641Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Role of Teaching in Language Revival and Revitalization Movements

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 October 2018

Sheena Shah
Affiliation:
SOAS University of [email protected]
Matthias Brenzinger
Affiliation:
Unit for Language Facilitation and Empowerment, University of the Free [email protected]

Abstract

Teaching is the main or even only way to pass on ancestral languages when intergenerational language transmission no longer takes place. The main reason for the interruption of natural language transmission is an increasing weakening of community bonds due to intermarriage, migration, and mobility. The formal or informal teaching of ancestral languages is therefore at the core of language revival and language revitalization movements. The article reviews favorable conditions and supportive factors for the teaching of ancestral languages from different parts of the world, and highlights the important role of dedicated community members in these endeavors.

Type
Brief Report
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bairon, F., Brenzinger, M., & Heinrich, P. (2009). The Ryukyus and the new, but endangered, languages of Japan. Asia Pacific Journal, 7, 19 (2), 121.Google Scholar
Brenzinger, M. (2018). Sharing thoughts, concepts and experiences. Fieldwork on African languages. In Sarvasy, H. & Forker, D. (Eds.), Word hunters: Field linguists on fieldwork (pp. 4560). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Brenzinger, M. (forthcoming). Language maintenance. In Darquennes, J., Salmons, J., & Vandenbussche, W. (Eds.), Language contact: An international handbook. (Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science (HSK)). Berlin, Germany: de Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
Brenzinger, M., & Heinrich, P. (2013). The return of Hawaiian: Language networks of the revival movement. Current Issues in Language Planning, 14 (2), 300316.Google Scholar
Brown, J., & Deumert, A. (2017). “My tribe is the Hessequa. I'm Khoisan. I'm African”: Language, desire and performance among Cape Town's Khoisan language activists. Multilingua: Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication, 36 (5), 571594.Google Scholar
Coulmas, F. (2016). Guardians of language: Twenty voices through history. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
De Prada-Samper, J. M. (2012). The forgotten killing fields: “San” genocide and Louis Anthing's mission to Bushmanland, 1862–1863. Historia, 57 (1), 172187.Google Scholar
Fellman, J. (1973). The revival of classical tongue: Eliezer Ben Yehuda and the modern Hebrew language. Berlin, Germany: de Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
Fishman, J. A. (1991). Reversing language shift: Theoretical and empirical foundations of assistance to threatened languages. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Grinevald, C., & Pivot, B. (2013). On the revitalization of a “treasure language”: The Rama Language Project of Nicaragua. In Jones, M. C. & Ogilvie, S. (Eds.), Keeping languages alive: Documentation, pedagogy and revitalization (pp. 181197). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Heine, B., König, C., & Legère, K. (2016). Reacting to language endangerment: The Akie of north-central Tanzania. In Pütz, M. & Filipović, L. (Eds.), Endangered languages: Issues of ecology, policy and documentation (pp. 313333). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Heinrich, P. (2012). The making of monolingual Japan: Language ideology and Japanese modernity. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Jones, M., & Mooney, D. (Eds.). (2017). Creating orthographies for endangered languages. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
König, C., Heine, B., & Legère, K. (2017). Akie as a language island. Paper presented at Language Islands Conference in Bad Münster, Germany, June 14–18, 2017.Google Scholar
Maguire, R. A. J. (1948). Il-Torobo. Tanganyika Notes and Records, 25, 1–27. (First published in 1928 in the Journal of the Royal African Society, 27(106), 127–141, and 27(107), 249–268.)Google Scholar
McCarty, T. L. (2013). Language planning and policy in Native America: History, theory, praxis. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Ociepka, P., & Marinda, B. (2009). Xam nu Yeu: Learning Khwedam is your future life. Victoria, BC, Canada: Trafford.Google Scholar
Okura, E. (2017). Language nests and language acquisition: An empirical analysis (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Hawai'i at Mānoa.Google Scholar
Shah, S., & Brenzinger, M. (2016). Ouma Geelmeid ke kx'u ǁxaǁxa Nǀuu. Cape Town, South Africa: Centre for African Language Diversity, University of Cape Town. Retrieved from https://open.uct.ac.za/handle/11427/17432Google Scholar
Shah, S., & Brenzinger, M. (2017). Writing for speaking: The Nǀuu orthography. In Jones, M. & Mooney, D. (Eds.), Creating orthographies for endangered languages (pp. 109125). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wedekind, K. (1994). Alphabetisierung und Literalität in Äthiopien. In Günther, H. & Ludwig, O. (Eds.), Schrift und Schriftlichkeit / Ein interdisziplinäres Handbuch internationaler Forschung (pp. 814824). Berlin, Germany: de Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
Wilson, W. H., & Kamanā, K. (2001). ‘Mai loko mai o ka ‘i‘ini: Proceeding from a dream’. The ‘Aha Pūnana Leo connection in Hawaiian language revitalization. In Hinton, L. & Hale, K. (Eds.), The green book of language revitalization in practice (pp. 147176). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, W. H., & Kamanā, K. (2009). Indigenous youth bilingualism from a Hawaiian perspective. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 8, 369375.Google Scholar
Zuckermann, G., & Walsh, M. (2016). Language reclamation and mental health: Revivalistics in the service of the wellbeing of indigenous people. In Day, D., Rewi, P., & Higgins, R. (Eds.), The journeys of besieged languages (pp. 94122). Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar